Junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) member Than Tun flew to China on Sunday as his boss, UEC chief Thein Soe, was observing local polls in Russia, the junta’s major arms supplier.
Their visits to two of the junta’s handful of allies follow regime boss Min Aung Hlaing’s announcement of a possible timeframe for a general election.
Min Aung Hlaing promised a poll after he ousted the elected National League for Democracy in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, citing alleged electoral fraud in the 2020 general election. The junta boss initially suggested the poll would take place in August this year, but so far he has only extended emergency rule multiple times.
In the first week of September, the junta boss told his cabinet that he plans to hold an election after a national census in October next year, indicating that the poll will not take place until at least 2025.
Thein Soe then left for Moscow on Sept. 6, and his one-week visit is scheduled to wrap up on Tuesday. Junta media reported that the former major general would sign a memorandum of understanding with Russia’s Central Election Commission and observe local elections during his one-week trip.
Russia ranks as an authoritarian regime in the Economist Intelligence Unit (IEU)’s latest Democracy Index.
In July, Thein Soe observed elections in Cambodia, held soon after the main opposition party was banned. The poll was criticized by the world’s democracies as neither free nor fair. Critics said it was nothing more than a legal cover used by Hun Sen—one of the world’s longest-serving leaders—to hand power to his son.
Elections are nonexistent in China, a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Junta media said the Myanmar junta delegation led by Than Tun will observe the CPC’s efforts at state-building and party-building. Than Tun will be visiting China until Sept.16 at the invitation of the CPC’s International Affairs Department.
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD when the party won a landslide victory in Myanmar’s 2020 general election.
But Beijing now addresses Min Aung Hlaing’s regime as Myanmar’s government. And it is also supporting the regime’s plans to hold a poll, after it jailed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, annulled the 2020 general election result and dissolved the NLD.
Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai met Thein Soe last year and in May this year, and asked about the poll proposed by the regime. UEC member Myint Thein has also visited China twice, in July and August, at the invitation of the CPC’s International Affairs Department.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Myanmar military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is also visiting China from Sept. 10-16 at the invitation of the CPC. In addition to dissolving the NLD, the junta’s election body has introduced a proportional representation system for the junta’s proposed poll, to make sure the USDP wins enough seats for the generals to retain their grip on power.
